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Consultant – Tunisia – Administration of TTLC Survey

THIS OPPORTUNITY HAS NOW CLOSED

Terms of Reference / Scope of Work
Assignment: Administration of TTLC Survey in Tunisia
Alliance lead: Jean-Francois Trinh Tan

1. The Project background

The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (the “Alliance”) is a public-private partnership for trade-led growth. We believe that international trade should be simple, fast and cost-effective, creating new business opportunities, enabling greater economic and social development and reducing poverty. Our work is designed to help governments in developing and least developed countries implement the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). We bring together governments and businesses as equal partners to identify opportunities to address customs delays and unnecessary red-tape at borders, and design and deploy reforms that deliver commercially quantifiable results.

We are jointly hosted by the World Economic Forum, International Chamber of Commerce and Center for International Private Enterprise – in cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The Alliance (launched in 2015 at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi) benefits from the financial support of 6 donor governments: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and Germany.

The Alliance has launched a number of projects to engage both the public and private sector in effective reform processes in order to implement the provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Conceived as a “data-driven” initiative, the Alliance highly values the collection of sound and reliable data and the piloting of innovative methodologies in order to orient and design its projects and assess their impact.

2. Background info on the assignment

The Alliance has designed a new methodology aiming to capture the total transport and logistics costs (TTLC) along the supply chain within specific sectors and trade corridors. TTLC focusses on estimating both the direct and the indirect costs generated by delays and lead times at the border. The collection of data for the TTLC study happens both from transaction-level databases held by the public and private sector (when possible) and through structured interviews conducted with local companies. The objective of the TTLC study in Tunisia is to provide an initial assessment of the import/export barriers currently faced by businesses to inform the design of a potential Alliance project in the country.

3. Required profile

The Alliance is seeking to retain an Individual Consultant or Consultancy Firm to conduct face-to-face interviews based on the questionnaire elaborated to complete the TTLC study. Bidders will have to prove:

  • The researcher or research team must have successfully conducted at least THREE complex and long face-to-face interviews with private businesses.
  • The researcher or a member of the research team must have at least 2 years’ demonstrated experience managing logistics around setting up interviews with private companies. Existing contacts with private sector networks would be an advantage.
  • The researcher or a member of the research team must have formal training or demonstrated experience on the trade supply chain and logistic in Tunisia. Experience in the Tunis Port and the neighbouring ports would be an advantage.
  • The researcher or team must have the ability to move within the Tunis area. Priority will be provided to bidders based nearby the Tunis area.
  • The research team must have demonstrated digital skills and ability to administer the survey through a tablet.

4. Tasks of the consultant

The consultant will work with the TTLC team, the Alliance country manager and local partner stakeholders to conduct structured interviews on the basis of the questionnaire and the sample frame provided. Her/his tasks will include:

  1. Attend virtual TTLC orientation sessions; pilot test the instrument to at least ten interviews with selected companies; and a follow-up/virtual training session on the online survey platform to be used for data collection (Qualtrics) as we well as on the details of the questionnaire.
  2. Schedule and conduct structured face-to-face interviews with clearing and forwarding agents, shipping lines, truck companies and importers on the basis of the company lists and sample frame provided by the Alliance. For every interview, it is estimated that the following time allocation will be necessary:
  • 60 minutes for coordination with TTLC team and local stakeholders and scheduling of the interview with businesses
  • 240 minutes for roundtrip transport within the Tunis area
  • 60-90 minutes for conducting each face-to-face interview

Throughout the data collection period, the consultant is also expected to join biweekly conference calls with the rest of the TTLC team to exchange information on the progress of the data collection.

The final survey will be provided to the consultant in a digitized form on an online survey platform (Qualtrics) and the consultant is expected to use his/her own tablet or laptop to administer it during face-to-face interviews. It is highly recommended that the consultant administers the survey directly through the online platform and not on paper.

One hundred (100) face-to-face interviews shall be consistent with the following structure:

  • 65 importers and exporters across multiple sectors (sectors TBD)
  • 30 clearing and forwarding agents
  • 5 shipping lines

5. Deliverables

The consultant will:

  1. Participate on three virtual training sessions (max 2 hours each) with Alliance team.
  2. Complete up to 100 face-to-face interviews.
  3. Participate in by-weekly progress 30’ calls

6. Confidentiality clause

Dataset and methodology shall remain confidential and shall exclusively be used in the context of this project.

7. Contract and selection process

The Consultant will be chosen on the basis of her/his technical qualifications and competitiveness of the financial proposal to ensure high quality outputs and deliver value for money. In terms of the financial proposal, in order to participate in the bidding process, bidders will have to propose:

  • a per day cost (for deliverable (a))
  • a per survey cost (for deliverable (b))
  • a per hour cost (for deliverable (c))

The table below highlights the scoring criteria.

Candidates are requested to submit the following by February 23, 2019 to the Alliance project lead, Mr Jean-Francois Trinh Tan (jean-francois.trinhtan@weforum.org).

  • A brief description (max 2 page) on how the candidates meet the required profile (item 3)
  • An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae (CVs) or company profile
  • Financial Proposal (in USD)

The bid for this contract shall not pass the maximum budget of 10,000 USD.

Technical score (max 55)
The researcher or research team must have successfully conducted at least THREE complex and long face-to-face interviews with private businesses. 15
The researcher or a member of the research team must have at least 2 years’ demonstrated experience on setting up appointments for interviews among private companies. Contacts with private sector networks would be an advantage. 15
The researcher or a member of the research team must have formal training or a year experience on the trade supply chain and logistic in Tunisia. 15
The researcher or team must have a demonstrated ability to move within the Tunis area. Priority will be provided to bidders based nearby the Tunis area. 10
Financial score (max 45)
Per survey proposal 20
Per hour proposal 10
Per day proposal 15
Time Schedule